Thoughts on Obama

Now that Barack has won I wanted to reflect on this week. Flying out to New Orleans on Monday (and Tuesday due to a missed connection) I was amazed at the amount of public support that I was seeing for Obama. In San Francisco, Denver and New Orleans I saw many people proudly displaying Obama t-shirts, buttons, hats, etc. The other stark reality was that I saw nobody promoting McCain. Not one. This was a clear illustration of the difference between the two campaigns. One was a choice for the party, and one was a choice

Obama represents many things for many people, and that is his greatness. He is not just a black president, albeit that is how the news media is positioning him today. Many constituencies look at him and see something in him that they are striving for in their lives. I see a successful, articulate, and refined thinker. Well educated, interested, and self made. I see someone who is not an ideologue, but someone who has defined ideals but is not afraid to adjust his direction based upon information and fact. It is a welcome change from Bush Cheney who seem upset with facts if they do not support their ideas.

My only caution to Barack is to not believe he has some overwhelming mandate. Barack's acceptance speech was fantastic and refreshing with his recognition that he is every one's president and that he needs McCain's supporters to jump on board. What a difference from Bush Cheney who believed that they only answered to the far right. Around 47% voted for McCain, which is a very large number of people. Overly aligning with the far left is as much of a mistake as aligning with the far right. Barack's speech was also amazing in its lack of self gratitude and ego. The Clinton's should take note and learn from him.

Overall, last night was a huge victory for Barack. Unfortunately he has been left with massive problems. Bush has harmed the economy, harmed the working man, harmed our military, harmed other countries, tarnished our global reputation, and left us with a massive debt. It will not be easy to overcome.

Finally, sad news. Bigotry still seems to be alive and well. Many states passed anti-gay marriage legislation. California's prop 8 may pass. Arkansas banned gay adoption, which is amazingly bigoted and cruel thinking about the number of kids that need to be adopted. There is no other word for it than bigotry. There is still work to be done....